The labour Leader thread...

[McPhee]

If it weren't for the boundaries Labour would look like Tories did 97'.

You Labour lovers need to face facts, Socialism in this country is dead, no point crying over it. Im in my 30s and the only time Labour have been successful was when Tony Blair moved you guys more to the right and positioned Labour as a true centreist party.

Andy Burnham will keep you on the left if not move futher to the left if that happans you beþer hope the Tories implode in the 5 years otherwise its 15 years in opposition.

Chuka Umunna, Labours version of a 2005 David Cameron? PM's have been getting younger and younger Major, Blair then Cameron but at some point inexperience will shine through, one for the future I say but not now.

Tristram Hunt, at least he has some career outside of Westminster but doesn't strike me as prime ministerial. An ideas man with a paper bag exterior.

Frankly the list of candidates is really bad, real bad not one standout candidate imo except for Dan Jarvis whos not running. UKIP might just do an SNP in your northern heartlands next time around looking at the inroads they made. Put the wrong leader in and it could very well be the end of the Labour and Co-Operative party as we know it.

Labour aren't at all dead. I think you need to face facts - The Tories won a hairline majority. They got a massive swing in the last few days by pushing fear - fear that another Labour government would destroy the economy (lol), fear that the SNP would walk all over a Labour-led government. That doesn't at all suggest that people no longer support Labour and the Lib Dems, or that the country has moved to the right.

What it does suggest is that Labour may have some difficulty getting back in unless they can put up a decent fight in Scotland. Otherwise, the fear card will just be played again five years from now. Then their chances largely depend on the Conservatives track record over the next five years.

 

[eatcustard]

Labour aren't at all dead. I think you need to face facts - The Tories won a hairline majority. They got a massive swing in the last few days by pushing fear - fear that another Labour government would destroy the economy (lol), fear that the SNP would walk all over a Labour-led government. That doesn't at all suggest that people no longer support Labour and the Lib Dems, or that the country has moved to the right.

What it does suggest is that Labour may have some difficulty getting back in unless they can put up a decent fight in Scotland. Otherwise, the fear card will just be played again five years from now. Then their chances largely depend on the Conservatives track record over the next five years.

You will find if the SNP are srong, the English will note vote Labour, as a vote for Labour gets you the SNP running the show*



*unless a Labour Majority

 

[Belly]

IMO you don't get get good government without good opposition.

From a Tory Voter's point of view, elect Andy Burnham and the Tories will be in power for a further five years! Labour fought much of its campaign on the NHS and lost, Burham will forever be associated with the defeat.

Yvette Cooper (Mrs Balls?) the best thing she can do is dump Ed too!

Dan Jarvis NOT SAS? (Stockings and Suspenders?). Could have been the right man for the job but I heard on the radio that he is NOT going to run. But anyone who jumps out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft (which later lands safely on the round) must be suspect?

Chukka Umuna seems a credible sort of guy, well spoken too and if I were to ever (very doubtful) vote labour, I'd consider voting for him.

Liz Kendall - light weight

 

[scorza]

You will find if the SNP are srong, the English will note vote Labour, as a vote for Labour gets you the SNP running the show*



*unless a Labour Majority

I think that's actually a good point, Labour are now fighting on two front - Tories in England and SNP in Scotland. This is new territory for them and they have to get both battle strategies right to win. IMO they can't wait for the SNP to implode they have to drive the agenda - there's already signs of friction between Salmond and Sturgeon to exploit and they need to stop bloody pandering to Scotland, offering them bribes to stay in the Union/vote Labour.

 

[ubersonic]

David Miliband and Ed Balls cannot stand as they are not a current Labour MP, and nobody available is as good as Ed Miliband. That may sound strange to some, but the was never actually anything wrong with Ed and his resignation was a big mistake, he didn't fail his party, his party failed him.

The right wing media made him out to be a loser, a fool, halfwit, weirdo, etc and his party failed miserably to dispel that myth. Even in to the last year senior Labour officials were maintaining a view that the public would warm to him and they just needed to show the people the "real Ed" and they were 100% correct, the problem however was they never did it, the public never met the real Ed until he sat down with Russell Brand a week before the election in an interview nobody watched.

If they had let people see the real Ed, a competent/confident politician and probably the nicest most genuine person to ever run for Prime Minister then they would absolutely have warmed to him. The problem was they tried to fight a 20th century campaign with a 21t century leader. If they had stuck him on TV shows and had him interviewed on late night shows they could have got him in the public eye and people would have said "hang on, this guys not an idiot, and he's much better than Cameron", it could have been another 1997 style landslide, however it turned into the worst defeat in decades and the person least responsible took all the blame.

Unless Labour learn from their mistake and stop blaming Ed for their faults they will not be able to progress.

 

[Belly]

.... he didn't fail his party, his party failed him.

.

Isn't that what Hitler said in 1945 (just before he put a bullet in his head?).

 

[mid_gen]

the public never met the real Ed until he sat down with Russell Brand a week before the election in an interview nobody watched..

10/10. Hilarious.

 

[ubersonic]

Isn't that what Hitler said in 1945 (just before he put a bullet in his head?).

Perhaps, but he was wrong

You cannot fight an election campaign by yourself, you need support, the wasn't really anything more Miliband could have done, Labour on the other hand had massive failings and shortcomings.

I am not saying he would have won a majority if the campaign was handled competently, but it would have been much closer, a coalition with the Lib Dems for either Cameron or Miliband.

The idea they can elect a new leader who isn't as good and yet get better results is ridiculous unless they drastically re-evaluate what they did wrong in this election, and choosing Ed was the least of their mistakes.

 

[BuffetSlayer]

I think fundamentally this was Ed's main problem:




Who can ever take a man seriously who is the personification of a plasticine model?

When you add his complete lack of presence or conviction he was always going to be doomed, whether or not the Labour manifesto was actually any good or not.

He simply is not Prime Minister material.

 

[RDM]

Perhaps, but he was wrong

You cannot fight an election campaign by yourself, you need support, the wasn't really anything more Miliband could have done, Labour on the other hand had massive failings and shortcomings.

I am not saying he would have won a majority if the campaign was handled competently, but it would have been much closer, a coalition with the Lib Dems for either Cameron or Miliband.

The idea they can elect a new leader who isn't as good and yet get better results is ridiculous unless they drastically re-evaluate what they did wrong in this election, and choosing Ed was the least of their mistakes.

Surely though as party leader Ed shoulders the responsibility for the wider Labour party failings too?

 

[Belly]

Didn't Jeremy Clarkson remark that the British wouldn't elect weirdos like Foot, Kinnock (three time looser) and Ed?

If Jeremy says it, it must be true!

 

[Jupiter]

... he didn't fail his party, his party failed him.

... the public never met the real Ed until he sat down with Russell Brand a week before the election in an interview nobody watched.

... the person least responsible took all the blame.

This post is simply remarkable. Great entertainment.

 

[robgmun]

This post is simply remarkable. Great entertainment.

I know, i sat their reading that with my jaw dropped, it's almost the complete opposite of the truth

 

[robgmun]

Labour is going to need years just to re-connect with their core supporters.

Not to mention having the intestinal fortitude to come clean about their party's previous failings.

The best strategy they can hope for in Scotland is to bang on to the Scots about how voting SNP let the Tories in.

 

[escape sanity]

10/10. Hilarious.

This post is simply remarkable. Great entertainment.

I know, i sat their reading that with my jaw dropped, it's almost the complete opposite of the truth

The level of debate here never ceases to amaze.

 

[ubersonic]

The level of debate here never ceases to amaze.

The sad fact that so many of them think that way is a bitter testament to what a great job Murdoch's empire did of destroying him (or what a poor job Labour did of defending him, take your pick).

 

[robgmun]

The sad fact that so many of them think that way is a bitter testament to what a great job Murdoch's empire did of destroying him (or what a poor job Labour did of defending him, take your pick).

That fact is that if Milliband wasn't wired to begin with there would be nothing for Murdoch to work with, he was a loser, a fool, halfwit, weirdo, etc and Television appearances just cemented that. Even the BBC couldn't make him look good

He has no one to blame apart from himself (and to be fair to the man, he does blame himself)

He probably is a very good MP with the heart in the right place, and he doesn't irritate me in the way that Balls, Abbott and countless others do. but he has come across as someone who doesn't have the strength or metal to control a Labour government and his fellow MP's would have probably walked all over him, and this is even before we got round to the international stage

 

[PermaBanned]

When you add his complete lack of presence or conviction he was always going to be doomed, whether or not the Labour manifesto was actually any good or not.

He simply is not Prime Minister material.

For starters, how is looking like Wallace not a good thing in the UK? Also, he routinely killed it in PMQs and he was the only one with the conviction to stand up to Murdoch, so you tell me who's PM material.

 

[mid_gen]

The level of debate here never ceases to amaze.

The fact you think appearing with Russell Brand was somehow going to make Milliband come across better is hilarious.

I don't know how he was portrayed in Murdoch media as I don't touch any of it. I was still going to vote for his party mind, but that was definitely in spite of him rather than because of.

 

[robgmun]

For starters, how is looking like Wallace not a good thing in the UK? Also, he routinely killed it in PMQs and he was the only one with the conviction to stand up to Murdoch, so you tell me who's PM material.

Wow, like i said before in another thread, part of the reason he looks so weak was because he didn't routinely killed it in PMQs, in fact he continuously failed when up against Cameron, and doubly so when the budget happened.

When the budget comes round it became routine for the Labour benches to look humiliated as all the doom and gloom predictions came in wrong time and again, so this got into the head of the electorate, if they couldn't make accurate predictions then how could the have the foresight control the economy properly

And almost every year Ed Balls response to the budget was a lesson in abject embarrassment as he couldn't even string a coherant sentence together